Gluten Free Salmon and Haddock Fishcakes with Spring Veg and Tartare Sauce

I made these fishcakes last night and they were a big success, good enough for a dinner party in fact, they are best cooked as soon as you have breaded them as the crumbs absorb water and are not as crispy if you leave them overnight. I experimented making fishcakes as we used to love the M&S 'gastropub' ones, but the crab ones are not gluten free and the salmon one uninspiring. We served them with sugar snaps, tiny carrot batons and spring onions cut in half, all boiled for two mins in salty water, tossed in butter. I made a tartare sauce to go with them, recipe for this below too.

This recipe makes six fishcakes, making three each for greedy people. Double up for more people, but you can get away with double potato but not double fish and just make them a tad smaller.

un-smoked skinned haddock 150 gms, cut into 1cm and 2cm cubes
skinned salmon 200gms, cut into 1 cm and 2cm cubes
large baking potatoes 2
small red onion 1, very finely chopped
small bunch of coriander leaves, chopped
small bunch of parsley, chopped
red chili 1, very finely chopped
eggs 2, separated into 1 yolk and the rest in another bowl
dove farm gluten free flour, 50gms
packet of GF breadcrumbs, sainsburys ones are nice
lemon 1, zested and juiced
olive or sunflower oil
salt and pepper

Bake the potatoes in the oven for an hour and then leave to cool down. Do this ahead or you will be waiting around ages. Chop your raw fish and put on a plate, season with salt and the lemon juice. Scoop the flesh from the potatoes, season and mash roughly, add your onion, parsley, coriander, lemon zest, red chili and egg yolk and mix. Pat the fish dry and add to the potato mix, squish around with your hands. You want some of the fish to smush into the potato and some to stay chunky. Make sure the potato is mixed evenly with the fish and divide the mixture into six piles. Shape your six fishcakes, you want little patties here, not balls, they must be flat on the top and bottom. Wet hands help shape these.

Now to bread them. Put the flour on one plate, mix the egg and put in a shallow bowl and put the breadcrumbs on another plate. Oil a baking tray. This is your little production line. Roll each patty first in flour, then in egg and then in breadcrumbs, you can use the breadcrumb stage to get them back into shape. Put them on the baking tray and drizzle with more oil. If you have an oil mist thing then using this to cover them with oil is perfect, don't be shy with the oil or they wont go brown and crispy.

If you have made six of these, then this size fishcake, made with raw fish, will take 16 minutes in a preheated fan oven at 200 degrees. Turn the cakes once half way. If they are not going brown and crispy and are just drying out then cover with more oil. The fish will be opaque when its done, just break one a little to check if you are worried (this one is for your plate!).

Tartare Sauce

mayonnaise 5, tablespoons (you can make it if you can be bothered)
pickled gherkins 2, finely chopped
capers 1, tablespoon finely chopped
bunch of parsley or coriander, finely chopped
lemon 1, zested and juiced

Mix all the ingredients together, yum yum!

Boil your veg briefly during the last couple of minutes on the oven timer and serve with a big blob of tartare sauce. Chips are optional but I don't think you need them with all the potato in the cakes anyway.

It's worth noting that if you don't like strong flavoured fish then replace the haddock with cod or more salmon. I am going to have a go at crab ones next, so I think I will flavour them with lemon grass, chili, ginger, garlic, coriander, lime and onion. M&S now sell fresh white crab meat ready prepared, or you can buy it in tins but that may be too wet. I don't like the dark meat at all. You don't get much crab meat though, so will bulk it up with more haddock I think, and will blog the recipe if its good!